University of Moratuwa Research – Reports

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item: SRC-Report
Accident hazard database for the process industry in Sri Lanka
Gunasekera, MY
Hazard can be described as a situation that can lead to harm. Such situations happen due to accidents in the industry. Hazardous conditions pose safety and health impacts within the working environment as well as in the environment outside the plant. These impacts vary from near misses to loss of lives. The current status or the extent of the industrial accidents occurs in Sri Lanka lacks understanding. When looking at industries in the industrialised countries one could see increasing efforts being made in understanding causes of accidents and instituting remedial Many accidents in the process industry that the world has experienced in the past have occurred repeatedly. These occurrences are lessons from the past and must not be forgotten in order to avoid disasters from happening in the future. In the process of becoming an industrialised country, Sri Lanka would need to develop some measures in managing process industrial hazards. A compilation of the data regarding accidents that have happened in the past would facilitate analysis of the accidents and understand the type and nature of accidents occur in this country. It would help us to determine the current status of accidents in Sri Lanka. Further, this Accident Database would be a valuable source of information in using the lessons from the past to avoid accidents in the future.
item: SRC-Report
An Activity allocation model for Sri Lanka using PECAS framework
(2016) De Silva, GLDI
Traditional Transport Models can under or overestimate the benefits when they try to model a rapidly changing economic surrounding. While looking into transport aspects, they cannot account the changes., the transportation causes on other systems, which ultimately act upon transportation itself. Even though the land use transport integration is a complex process to model, PECAS (Production, Exchange, Consumption Allocation System), a generalized theoretical framework for representing spatial economic systems, is capable of modelling the integrated nature of land use and transportation efficiently due to its intrinsic capabilities of modelling all economic subsystems with acceptable accuracy levels. While the use of PECAS is widely tested in developed countries, only a limited number of studies have been carried out in developing countries. Thus, the study focused on developing one of the major components of the framework, an Activity Allocation Module. First, study checked the possibility of adopting the PECAS framework for Sri Lanka, identified data to be derived and did necessary processing. Data gathered from national accounts of Sri Lanka, input output tables, supply and use tables, other surveys conducted by Department of Census and Statistics and data from other sources were assessed, to check the suitability of available data to prepare economic and land use inputs to the model. Development of key elements of an Activity Allocation Model were completed with available and synthesized data. As the basic output of the study, an Aggregate Economic Flow Table was developed with 42 commodity categories (17 good categories, 11 service commodities, 11 labour categories, 3 space categories and 8 financial and adjusting categories), 12 manufacturing activities and 11 service activities. It includes government and 3 categories of households. Import and export markets are also accounted.
item: SRC-Report
Adoptability of zero waste Lankan construction industry
(2016) Waidyasekara, KGAS; Mallawaarachchi, BH; Liyanage, KIAKT; The construction industry, being the largest industry, it generates massive quantities of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste. In order to eliminate C&D waste, the Zero waste concept emerged as a potential solution. Although, Construction Waste Management (COWAM) project is available for manage C&D waste in Sri Lanka, there is a lack of studies to manage C&D waste management. Thus, this study focuses on elimination of C&D waste from construction industry by applying zero waste concept. To achieve the ultimate aim of the study, four (04) objectives were developed. First objective is to review the concepts of C&D waste, Zero waste and current C&D waste management in the construction industry while the second objective is to examine enablers and barriers to apply zero waste concept in Sri Lankan construction industry. Third objective is to propose suitable suggestions to minimize the identified barriers and the final objective is to develop a framework to apply the zero waste concept in Sri Lankan construction industry. To achieve the objectives, comprehensive literature survey was carried out. Further, qualitative research approach was followed and eight (08) case studies were used to collect data. Semi structured interviews, document review and observations were carried out in the selected eight case studies. To analyse the collected data, individual case analysis and cross case analysis were followed. Through the case study findings, composition of C&D waste, origins and causes of C&D waste, current C&D waste management procedure, strategies, enablers, barriers and suggestion to apply zero waste concept in the Sri Lankan context were identified. Finally, all the collected data was harmonized into one place and a framework was developed to apply zero waste concept in the Sri Lankan construction industry.
The construction industry, being the largest industry, it generates massive quantities of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste. In order to eliminate C&D waste, the Zero waste concept emerged as a potential solution. Although, Construction Waste Management (COWAM) project is available for manage C&D waste in Sri Lanka, there is a lack of studies to manage C&D waste management. Thus, this study focuses on elimination of C&D waste from construction industry by applying zero waste concept. To achieve the ultimate aim of the study, four (04) objectives were developed. First objective is to review the concepts of C&D waste, Zero waste and current C&D waste management in the construction industry while the second objective is to examine enablers and barriers to apply zero waste concept in Sri Lankan construction industry. Third objective is to propose suitable suggestions to minimize the identified barriers and the final objective is to develop a framework to apply the zero waste concept in Sri Lankan construction industry. To achieve the objectives, comprehensive literature survey was carried out. Further, qualitative research approach was followed and eight (08) case studies were used to collect data. Semi structured interviews, document review and observations were carried out in the selected eight case studies. To analyse the collected data, individual case analysis and cross case analysis were followed. Through the case study findings, composition of C&D waste, origins and causes of C&D waste, current C&D waste management procedure, strategies, enablers, barriers and suggestion to apply zero waste concept in the Sri Lankan context were identified. Finally, all the collected data was harmonized into one place and a framework was developed to apply zero waste concept in the Sri Lankan construction industry.
item: SRC-Report
Alternative building materials and methods for Sri Lanka
Jayasinghe, C; Perera, AADAJ
The housing requirement in Sri Lanka is rising due to the growth of population and urbanization. This rising demand has to be met in an environment of rapidly rising prices of conventional building materials. Over exploitation of conventional building materials such as bricks, sand and timber has caused a number of environmental problems such as excessive clay and sand mining and deforestation. In this context, introduction of cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative building materials is of considerable importance. Such alternative building materials should be sufficiently strong and durable so that social acceptance would be at a reasonably high level. In the research work presented in this thesis, cement stabilized soil blocks are introduced as an alternative to brickwork and cement sand blockwork. These blocks are manufactured with laterite soils using a suitable machine. Since brickwork can be used as a loadbearing material with considerable saving for residential buildings, an attempt was made to use cement stabilized soil blocks also as a loadbearing material. This will require structural designing of residential buildings for which the design methodology, design data and the quality controlling required at construction need to be established. A detailed experimental program was conducted to establish such information as a part of the research work presented. These findings can be used to carryout detailed structural design of cement stabilized soil block structures and hence it will now be possible for practicing engineers to introduce this technology to Sri Lanka with a lot of confidence. A detailed design study and a cost study are also presented as guidance. Reinforced concrete solid slabs are often used in multi-storey residential buildings as the preferred option in Sri Lanka. These insitu cast slabs need a considerable amount of formwork and falsework. Since timber is a scare resource, the prices are increasing rapidly, thus making solid slabs an expensive solution for floor slabs. The utilization of concrete in solid slabs is also not optimum. As an alternative to insitu cast solid slabs, a precast reinforced concrete composite beam slab system is introduced. This system has optimized usage of concrete, steel and minimizes the need for formwork and falsework, thus leading to considerable savings in cost. The results of load testing are used to show that these composite slab systems can be designed by using the guidelines given in BS 8110 : Part 1 : 1985. It is also shown that only 66.67% of the imposed load need be considered for the design of individual precast slab panels of the composite system due to load sharing. A detailed cost study is also presented which can be used as guidance for cost comparison purposes. Therefore, now it would be possible to use this cost effective slab system in residential buildings with a lot of confidence and also to adopt it for other buildings as well.
item: Article-Full-text
Alternative building materials for Sri Lanka
Jayasinghe, C
The housing requirements in Sri Lanka is rising due to growth of population and urbanisation. Due to change in socio-economic conditions and the living patterns of the society, there is a tendency for every individual family to own a house. Persons of middle income and low income groups have only limited funds at disposal for house construction. Majority of the population raise the funds required for house construction through bank loans, generally at around 15% to 20% interest rates with a payback period varying between 10 to 20 years. Since the amount of money made available is generally limited to ensure monthly instalments are within 40 % of the income the maximum amount that can be raised for house constructions also limited. This calls for construction techniques that achieve an utmost economy in house construction to suit the income of average and low income wage earners. The cost of housing in Sri Lanka has risen astromically in the recent past due to many factors, one of which is the shortage of building material to meet the demand of the building industry. One example is shortage of sand due to excessive sand mining. Another is land for clay mining to produce bricks. A direct consequence of the shortage of materials is the cost of building materials. This therefore calls for an urgent investigation in to the possibility of using locally available alternative building materials which can be used to replace the conventional building materials.
item: SRC-Report
Analysis of parameters sensitivity and sub watershed delineation when flood modeling with spatially distributed unit hydrographs
Wijesekera, NTS
Occurrence of flash floods is a major problem faced by Sri Lanka, today (Hettiarachchi, 2011). Damages to properties, loss of human lives and displacement of people were frequently observed in consequence, during recent period. Changes expected in rainfall patterns due to anticipated climate change (Misra & Ghosh, 2010) and land development due to urbanisation (Hettiarachchi, 2011) are indicated as the major causes of this. There is a possibility of reduction of flood damages, identification of safer locations and directing people to such locations, with a proper flood forecasting system, but urban watersheds being smaller causes such systems have been less effective. Accurate flow estimations and suitable drainage designs therefore, become more important and representative stream flow estimations are essential in flood forecasting. For this, it is important to use representative models to ensure best estimates of watershed responses for a given rainfall (Khaleghi, Gholami, Ghodusi, & Hosseini, 2011).
item: SRC-Report
Analysis of probability distribution of annual maximum, mean, and minimum stream flows in Sri Lanka
Gamage, NPD
Selection of a probability distribution for discharge series is very important in estimating floods accurately. Since the introduction of L-moments (Hosking 1990), numerous investigations have been carried out to assess the goodness of fit of various probability distributions to regional samples. L-moment diagrams were constructed for annual maximum flood flows, annual average daily stream flows, and annual minimum low flows at 46 catchments in Sri Lanka. The data were screened to eliminate gross errors and inconsistencies. For this purpose the Discordancy measure Di introduced by Hosking and Wallis in 1993 was used. The Discordancy measure allows for an objective determination of which sites, i, in a region, are grossly discordant with the group as a whole. For each flow series, sites were dropped with discordancy measures Di,> 3. Suitable distributions for each site were selected by comparing the observed and theoretical relations between L-cv and L-skewness of the flood flows. The goodness-of-fit test was then applied in order to examine the descriptive performance of screened distributions.
item: SRC-Report
An Analysis of the current middle level engineering technology education programmes in Sri Lanka
Wanigatunga, NL; Thoradeniya, WBM
Basic technical education provided to fresh school leavers can be divided into four main categories according to the depths of subject matter taught and the skills involved: craft level, certificate level, diploma level and the degree level, In the Engineering fields of technical education these four categories could be distinctly identified. However, the entire workforce engaged in an engineering project is usually categorized into three levels. The personnel holding a degree or equivalent qualifications are categorized as upper level, the skilled craftsmen are categorized as the lower level. The diploma holders and the certificate holders fall into the category of middle level. This category accounts for all the jobs in between the other two levels and require both theoretical knowledge of the subject matter sufficient to interpret and appreciate designs, and skills needed in the relevant job to turnout a quality assured final product. The careers starting from foreman grades up to junior assistant engineer level could be accommodated in this group. This research aims to analyse such currently available programmes
item: SRC-Report
An Analysis of the influence of the field level hydraulic property approximations in stormwater modeling
Wijesekera, NTS
This research analyzes the sensitivity of field estimated watershed parameters and their influence to the results of watershed mathematical modelling using US EPA SWMM 5. The approximations done in channel physical parameter measurements and the catchment intermittent storages modelling were evaluated in this study. The literature study on the state of the art stormwater modelling reveals that EPA SWMM 5 is capable of handling complex watershed behaviours and can meet the objectives of this study. The Karasnagala watershed, located in Gampaha district in the western province of Sri Lanka, was used as the study area, considering the availability of gauged data and evaluates the applicability of EPA SWMM 5 to regional watershed. Event based modelling approach is closer to science and it has a capability of better representation of watershed behaviour. So the event based approach was followed in this study. Event separation used 3 days minimum inter event time (MIT), which was derived from Unit Hydrograph theory and 0 mm/day minimum inter event depth (MED) as the threshold rainfall cut-off value of the event analysis. Twenty five rainfall-runoff events for model calibration and 25 rainfallrunoff events for model verification were separated from the 1971 to 1982 period of measured data at the Karasnagala gauging station. The baseflow separation from the observed hydrographs was required to compare the EPA SWMM 5 derived direct runoff hydrograph with the observed streamflow hydrograph. Systematic approach was followed to identify the generation and the behaviour of the baseflow and then identified the advantages and the disadvantages of baseflow separation methods used in the research studies. The evaluation of baseflow separation methods with literature support and according to the objectives of this study; concluded that die graphical baseflow separation methods have the top priority. The concave method was selected for baseflow separation for this study.
item: SRC-Report
Analysis of the parameters affecting the performance of multiple query web based land and water geoinformation systems
Wijesekera, NTS
Improvements to the internet, cloud concepts, smart tools, sharing requirements, dynamic and multiuser involvements etc., have made the users to move away from desktop standalone GIS to web GIS for planning and management applications. Presently the most popular tasks that are connected with geographic locations include finding a place, obtaining information pertaining to that location, measure lengths or areas. However the tasks expected are becoming broader and challenging. Present day users require multi layer data handling and also demand the use of multiple type of data. Unlike in simple map location identifications etc., these types of activities require more time to perform and therefore the web GIS tools need to address the issue of performance to ensure that web based applications are at their best level. Maintain the performance with growing data volumes and increasing the concurrent user access is the main challenge with the Web based GIS application development. Therefore, the data, data structures, functions, function flow and development methods should be organized at the design stage of the application implementation process. Short response time for a given piece of work, high throughput, low utilization of computing resources, high availability of the computing system or application, fast data compression and decompression and short data transmission time are identified as performance evaluation criteria by the literature survey for a web based application. According to a user survey from web GIS application users, short response time was identified as the prioritize criteria.
item: SRC-Report
An Analysis of the socio-economic aspects of three wheeler market as an informal public transport (IPT) mode : Moratuwa case study
Kumarage, AS; Bandara, MS; Munasinghe, D
In today’s world one of the most challenging problems that we face is providing optimal, efficient, cost effective and also environmentally friendly transport services. According to Aworemi, Salami, et al. (2008), the demand for public transport depends on two factors. First, “the desire to make a particular trip and to do so by public transport. Second, the characteristics and nature of the public transport modes that are available.” Providing an optimal public transport service which maximizes social welfare is a major challenge confronted with transport stakeholders in developing countries. Impoverished conditions in public transport such as bus and rail transport in developing countries have given rise to a formation of Informal Public Transport (IPT) modes. Further, increasing urbanization, population and industrial development is increasing the demand for urban transport services. As a result, demand for comfortable yet affordable public transport has become inevitably high (Hilling, 1996). Informal Public Transport (IPT) modes are widespread social phenomena in Sri Lanka and have become an integral part of the transport sector. The most common and visible IPT mode in Sri Lanka is the use of Three-Wheelers. Even though many representatives of Sri Lankan society consider it as a nuisance; congestion of traffic, noise and air pollution, association with illegal activities, and price irregularities, from the standpoint of passengers the ready availability, flexibility in door to door service, ease in communication and “affordability” have found the grounds for the existence of Three wheelers as an primary IPT mode. This study examines the socio-economic aspects in Three-Wheelers from both passenger and Three-Wheeler drivers’ perspective. Researchers of this study believe that it is important to understand how Three-Wheelers exist in a competitive market environment. Moreover, due to lack of scientific investigations on this trade, the researchers presents a socio-economic profile with a profound analysis of the pricing mechanism, market structures, customer preference, trip purposes, perception of three-wheeler imports, and social exclusion of three-wheelers, from functional and structural differentiation perspectives and theories of pricing
item: SRC-Report
An Analysis of the socio-economics aspects of three-wheeler markets an informal public transport (IPT) mode: Moratuwa case study
(2016-08-15) Kumarage, AS; Bandara, MS; Munasinghe, DN
In today's world one of the most challenging problems that we face is providing optimal, efficient, cost effective and also environmentally friendly transport services. According to Aworemi, Salami, et al. (2008), the demand for public transport depends on two factors. First, "the desire to make a particular trip and to do so by public transport. Second, the characteristics and nature of the public transport modes that are available." Providing an optimal public transport service which maximizes social welfare is a major challenge confronted with transport stakeholders in developing countries. Impoverished conditions in public transport such as bus and rail transport in developing countries have given rise to a formation of Informal Public Transport (lPT) modes. Further, increasing urbanization, population and industrial development is increasing the demand for urban transport services. As a result, demand for comfortable yet affordable public transport has become inevitably high (Hilling, 1996). Informal Public Transport (lPT) modes are widespread social phenomena in Sri Lanka and have become an integral part of the transport sector. The most common and visible IPT mode in Sri Lanka is the use of Three- Wheelers. Even though many representatives of Sri Lankan society consider it as a nuisance; congestion of traffic, noise and air pollution, association with illegal activities, and price irregularities, from the standpoint of passengers the ready availability, flexibility in door to door service, ease in communication and "affordability" have found the grounds for the existence of Threewheelers as an primary1PT mode. This study examines the socio-economic aspects in Three-Wheelers from both passenger and Three- \Yheeler drivers' perspective. Researchers of this study believe that it is important to-understand how Three-Wheelers exist in a competitive market environment. Moreover, due to lack of scientific investigations on this trade, the researchers presents a socio-economic profile with a profound analysis of the pricing mechanism, market structures, customer preference, trip purposes, perception of three-wheeler imports, and social exclusion of three-wheelers, from functional and structural differentiation perspective and theories of pricing
item: SRC-Report
An analysis of the spatial forms of Sri Lankan urban areas with 'Space Syntax' for planning purposes
(2013-11-06) Munasinghe, JN
Small cities in Asia will have to playa major role in future urban scenario, as a considerable share of the world urban population by the mid of this century will be living in them. Planning their growth thus, has become a need of the day, and to support their planning with better informed decisions research is urgently needed in many aspects of small cities. One such important aspect is the dynamics of the configuration of spaces, which the existing body of knowledge in planning has yet not fully explained and, towards which the planning approaches are conventionally least sensitive. In that context, this paper explores the dynamics of the spatial order in two small cities in Sri Lanka, namely Galle and Rathnapura. The two cities have been experiencing two types of forces associated with their growth and change. The first is the set of endogenous forces that urges them to change, sometimes expanding outward from their boundaries. The second is the flux of exogenous forces, among which technocratic urban planning process and recurrent and unexpected natural disasters are the prominent. Rathnapura city experienced annual floods, and a planned intervention to overcome that, and Galle city experienced asudden tsunami disaster and an unplanned project based intervention that affected its growth. The interventions resulted in a reconfigurations and changes in the spatial order of activities in both cities, but in manners that were unprecedented by the planning agencies. The paper discusses this phenomenon of self-organizing, responding to the effects of external forces of change, as a function of the 'spatial configuration': that is the overall composition of spatial elements, to determine the 'activity pattern': that is the order of the location of activities in space. The spatial configurations and the activity patterns of these two cities before and after the said interventions are compared. The pattern of the activity spaces are studied with activity mapping and the spatial configurations are studied using Space Syntax.
item: SRC-Report
An Analysis of the spatial forms of Sri Lankan urban areas with 'space syntax' for planning purposes
Munasinghe, JN
One of the main limitations often noted in contemporary urban planning and urban design literature, and therefore in the practice, is the understanding that the urban areas, be them large cities or small towns, are static entities which can be planned towards specific end states. Although this rather conventional understanding of cities as ‘products’ was contested from time to time, only limited attempts have been made so far to study and conceptualize the evolutionary process of cities by employing comprehensive methods. In this background, this research intended to study urban areas in Sri Lanka with an emerging space modeling method: Space Syntax. The key proposition of the method is that the unequal configuration of public spaces (mainly the streets and access ways) decides their level of connectivity and thus, their level of integration into the overall spatial structure of an urban area (Hillier, 1996). Further, the levels of integration invest varying capacities into those spaces to attract people and competitive urban activities that are mutually reinforcing the presence of each other. Based on this premise, this study examines the spatial configuration and the resulting activity patterns in the urban areas of Sri Lanka. The applications will be done on existing urban structure as well as at different stages of their growth.
item: SRC-Report
An Analysis of unconventional modern domestic environments in urban contexts
Basnayake, V
Sri Lanka, is an island with a wide coastal belt and an indulging landscape with lush greenery. Its5 strategic position in the Indian Ocean made her rich in contacts with the outside world. The diverse influences from India, Southeast Asia, East Asia and also from colonization have been interpreted in historical, social, cultural and especially in physical contexts through out its5 civilization. With passage of time due to many known and unknown reasons most of these evidences are not visible today. Urban domestic architecture is one such. Current visible evidences of urban domestic architecture mainly have roots in colonial Ceylon. Although we are short of Portuguese domestic architecture in Sri Lanka we do have a considerable amount of features from Dutch influence. Baroque gables, verandas and courtyards with spaces interconnected within could be mainly figured as Dutch introductions to new urban centers. But the British kept a maximum possible garden abounded with a large garden at front. These elite residential areas within cities were very similar to country houses in Britain and were far away from architecturally domestic urban quality. Ending the colonial rule independence movement began. Political, social and cultural winds blew through the continent effecting the sciences and arts as well. People were searching for their own identities and in parallel we were looking for a “Sri Lankan identity55. By this time our architects who were caught up in modem movement thinking during their study stays in western schools were back in homeland. The so-called modern movement was the international trend, the style of freedom representing the independence. The principles of clarity, purity and completeness introduced by modern movement were slowly rejecting by Asians. The process of continuous growing which, the Asians were adhered in ‘living5 could not be accommodated by those specific designs. We are spontaneous. We do not take much care about a clear beginning or on a destination. We move in time spontaneously. Our ideas, needs and desires change with time within where we are. We just happen to live accommodating what we have; accommodating surrounding. This spontaneousness within our cultural setting backed by Buddhist philosophy should possess our identity in architecture.
item: SRC-Report
Analysis of urban morphology through spectral mixture analysis (SMA) technique in remote sensing
(2013-11-06) Mahanama, PKS
Urban morphology is the phvsical appearance ofsocial reality. Aualvzing of urban morphology is necessarvfor predicting the urban changes such as climatic change and for understanding the urban processes such as urban sprawl 01110 agricultural lands & wild habitats, and the expansion of residential land use at the urban [ringe Earlier, aerial or field sutvevs lI'ere commonly used/or producing land use //laps in order to understand the spatial structure of the cities. However. these manual methods are more labor intensive. costlv and difficult to defect morphological part ems over a long period of till/e. Thus this research attempted to find out the feasibility of using nell' technologiesfor urban morphological aualvsis. The technique adopted in this research 1ms Spectral Mixture Analysis (SA1A), which is one 0/ the techniques in Remote Sensing technology. Two IKONOS sate/lite images captured in ]005 covering Colombo district lI'ere used in this research. The commercial image processing software. ENVI4.1 was used for data analysis & visualization. This work evaluates the morphological characteristics 0/ Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipality. using end-members that 1I'ere extracted through Pixel Purity Index (PPI) , Scatter Plots & n-Dimensional visualizer. The abundance maps 1I'ere generated for impervious surfaces, green vegetation, bare soil & shade. Classification results [rom applying the SMA 11'ere assessed by comparison with ground reference data. The study identified tliat SMA technique classified the image with a high accuracv gil'lllg 1I'ind011's to identify major land use types and urban morphology with a considerable accuracy,
item: SRC-Report
Analysis of urban morphology through spectral mixture analysis technique in remote sensing
Mahanama, PKS
The urbanization process effects both structure and function of the cities. Therefore, the analysis of morphological patterns of a particular urban area have evolved as a result of varying factors of demographics, level of economic development, political structure, environmental effects, etc. Hence, analyzing of urban morphology is necessary for predicting the urban changes such as impact of climatic changes in urban context and understanding the urban processes such as urban sprawl onto agricultural lands and wild habitats, and the expansion of residential landuse at the urban fringe. To understand and predict the urban processes, it is needed to monitor and characterize the spatial patterns of the urban area by observing them at different states in time.
item: SRC-Report
Analysis of Urban Morphology through Spectral Mixture Analysis Techniques in Remote Sensing ,
(2016-08-15) Mahanama, PKS
Urban morphology is the phvsical appearance ofsocial reality. Aualvzing of urban morphology is necessarvfor predicting the urban changes such as climatic change and for understanding the urban processes such as urban sprawl 01110 agricultural lands & wild habitats, and the expansion of residential land use at the urban [ringe Earlier, aerial or field sutvevs lI'ere commonly used/or producing land use //laps in order to understand the spatial structure of the cities. However. these manual methods are more labor intensive. costlv and difficult to defect morphological part ems over a long period of till/e. Thus this research attempted to find out the feasibility of using nell' technologiesfor urban morphological aualvsis. The technique adopted in this research 1ms Spectral Mixture Analysis (SA1A), which is one 0/ the techniques in Remote Sensing technology. Two IKONOS sate/lite images captured in ]005 covering Colombo district lI'ere used in this research. The commercial image processing software. ENVI4.1 was used for data analysis & visualization. This work evaluates the morphological characteristics 0/ Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipality. using end-members that 1I'ere extracted through Pixel Purity Index (PPI) , Scatter Plots & n-Dimensional visualizer. The abundance maps 1I'ere generated for impervious surfaces, green vegetation, bare soil & shade. Classification results [rom applying the SMA 11'ere assessed by comparison with ground reference data. The study identified tliat SMA technique classified the image with a high accuracv gil'lllg 1I'ind011's to identify major land use types and urban morphology with a considerable accuracy,
item: SRC-Report
Applicability of a carbon tax system in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka
(2018) Ramachandra, T; Karunaratne, T
Global warming and subsequent climate change have been identified as critical global issues which need urgent and close attention. Nevertheless, addressing this has become a problem due to the direct relationship between development and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, with the introduction of Paris agreement, countries are trying to reduce GHG emission by using various emission reduction policy instruments. Price based emission reduction instruments are deemed to be effective in achieving emission reductions, as they induce emission reductions through price signals, and also generate revenues which can later be used. Carbon tax systems and emission trading schemes are identified ax the most popular pricing instruments. However, implementation of carbon pricing instruments in not that common seen. Hence, this research focuses on identifying the applicability of carbon pricing instruments to reduce GHG emissions in apparel sector, which is also a highly energy intensive sector in Sri Lanka Data collection was done through semi- structured interviews and questionnaires. Data collected through questionnaire survey was analysed using Fuzzy Extended Analytic Hierarchy Process (FEAHP), while data collected through interviews were analysed through content analysis. A preliminary survey w dene to validate literature findings, which was used in the questionnaire. Questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the response of apparel firms to carbon pricing instruments. When evaluating the response of firms, the importance given by firms to decision alternatives was analysed using FEAHP. Accordingly, investing in new technologies was found as the most important decision alternative for apparel firms with an importance weight of 0.24, while shifting cost to customers was found as the decision alternative with lowest importance with a weight of 0.17. From the expert interviews, it was found that the carbon pricing revenue should be used to programmes which targets emission reductions. Further, the expert interviews revealed that there could be barriers at organisation level, sector level and national level when implementing a carbon pricing instrument. Hence, it was found that the necessary steps should be taken at all those three levels to overcome the barriers and implement a lasting carbon pricing instrument which is capable of achieving emission reductions.
item:
Application of management frameworks for coastal zone management
Hettiarachchi, SSL
Sri Lanka is an island state with a coastline of approximately 1600 km and a land area of around 64,000 sq. km. Coastal erosion has been identified as a major natural hazard faced by Sri Lanka for a very long time. Its impact has increased at alarming rates due to unplanned human intervention in the coastal zone and with more than half of the country's total population settled in coastal areas, the unplanned development of coastal infrastructure resulting from increased settlements has naturally led to accelerated degradation of the coastal environment. Although the coastal problems of Sri Lanka have been recognized from the turn of the century it is in the last two decades that growing attention has been focused on these problems because they have been seriously aggravated